The popularity of golf is well documented in the United States, and its popularity in other countries, such as Japan, is growing rapidly. Golfer's skills vary from high-scoring duffers to tournament-winning professionals, yet no golfer ever gets so consistently good that he can't benefit from some constructive training or practice.
It has been stated that the major difference in today's golfers is found in the putting portion of the game of golf. In fact, many modern golf courses have been designed to make putting an even more important phase of the game.
The putting stroke generally includes several phases: the address or set-up phase which the golfer initially assumes in relation to the ball with the clubhead located behind the ball before hitting a shot; the backswing phase in which the club is drawn back into a cocked position; the striking phase in which the putter is moved to and through the ball; and the follow-through phase of the stroke in which the putter is moved past and beyond the hitting zone to finish the stroke.
There are many styles and methods of putting; however, regardless of the extreme or conservative nature of the various styles, the effective styles all have several basic factors in common. The basic traits that the effective putting strokes have in common are: a connected swing; square clubface at the moment of impact; and properly aligned eyes. In addition to these basic traits, an effective putter has proper tempo, confidence and versatility. All such traits should be learned and practiced if the golfer is to be an effective putter.
Thus, it is extremely important to keep the arms, hands and upper body in synch and moving as a unit during the entire putting stroke from set-up to finish. This unitary movement of the hands, arms and upper body is referred to as "connection" by textbooks, such as "How to Perfect your Golf Swing", by J. Ballard, published Golf/Tennis Inc., 1981. In particular, at pages 23, 29, 42, 57-58, 60, 77-87 and 119-141 (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference), this text discusses the importance of maintaining such connection throughout an entire swing. If the unit is disconnected, accuracy, and consistency will be vitiated, if not entirely lost.
The present inventor has found that such connection is just as important in a putting stroke as it is in the other swings associated with golf. The connected swing will ensure that the clubhead is carried back low and on line and follows through low and on line.
A second basic trait that all effective putting strokes have in common is that the clubface is maintained square to the line of ball movement at impact. If the clubface is not square to the intended line of the putt at impact, the ball will move off line and the accuracy of the putt will be lost.
A third basic trait that all effective putting strokes have is that the golfer has his eyes aligned vertically over the ball or vertically over the target line behind the ball. If the golfer's eyes are not so aligned, optical impressions may mislead him into incorrectly aiming the clubface and thereby misdirecting the ball.
In a putting stroke, as in any other sports stroke, it is critical that the golfer receive and retain an accurate picture in his mind of the basic moves involved in the swing. Any practice move which is repeated by a golfer is going to register in his mind as a form of "muscle memory". Therefore, the golfer, in order to program the correct set-up, backswing, striking phase and follow-through, must be able to visually appreciate those moves so that his muscle memory is accurate and repeatable.
Likewise, any error in the practice movement will be repeated in the actual putting stroke. In other words, "practice makes permanent".
Therefore, it is extremely important for any practice device or technique to be designed to promote proper habits, including maintaining connection and ensuring that the club face will be square to the desired path at the moment of impact between the clubface and the ball.
Since putting is such an extremely important phase of the overall game, there have been many and varied golf putting practice devices proposed in the art.
While all practice and/or teaching devices, in theory, propound correctness, not all such devices actually, in practical application, provide such correctness.
For example, the above-discussed connection is not always produced. In fact, some devices that use a path over which a club is moved actually promote disconnection.
For example, if the club is moved along a path and the golfer is forced to focus on the path in front of or to the side of or in back of the clubhead, disconnection is actually encouraged because the target is disconnected from the clubhead. Thus, the golfer is caused to visually begin the swing and to hit the ball looking at a target that is not in the proper position. This off-line guide causes the golfer to have a tendency to move the clubface toward a spot that is not in line with the club at any particular instant. This actually tends to force the golfer's hands and arms away from his body. This disconnection begins at set-up and continues throughout the entire swing.
The device that include a target that is disconnected from the club itself also can cause the club to be moved in a manner that has the face thereof out of square at impact thereby violating another of the basic requirements for an effective putting stroke.
Therefore, it is seen that the presently available teaching and training aids used to teach and practice putting have shortcomings with regard to teaching and practicing the basic elements of an effective stroke.
A still further problem with many of the presently available teaching devices is the physical contact between the device and the golfer during the practice and/or training. Thus, devices such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,180 that provide a guide for the putter cause correction by having the putter contact the guide during practice if that putter is moved off line.
It has been found that teaching a motor skill is most efficient if there is no physical contact during the practice movements so that the student must rely on his visual and his intrinsic sensory perception skills rather than his tactile senses to sense that portion of his body making an error, and then to correct the movement of that portion of his body making that error. The student is forced to visualize his body movements and orientation and then correct any errors using his own perceptual system if physical contact is avoided; whereas, if there is physical contact, the student is made aware of the precise body part that is in error, and is given a clue to how much it is in error by his tactile senses. This is not how things are in the real world, and thus the training is not as efficient as it could be.
In addition to being proficient with the abovementioned basic traits, those golfers who excel at the putting phase of the game may be able to change their stroke to fit the exact existing conditions or to be most comfortable. That is, to be extremely versatile, the golfer should have the ability to vary his putting stroke from a so-called "square-to-square" stroke to a so-called "open-to-closed" stroke to a so-called "closed-to-open" stroke while still retaining accuracy, tempo, concentration and confidence in his putting skills. This ability can only be developed by practicing all of the putting skills, and presently available teaching and training devices do not provide the facilities to permit a golfer to efficiently practice all of the different putting strokes.
In the square-to-square stroke, the clubface is swung away from and back through the ball without that clubface ever turning. In the open-to-closed stroke, the clubface is rotated slightly clockwise on the backswing and commensurately counterclockwise through; the ball. In the closed-to-open stroke, the club face is rotated slightly counterclockwise on the backswing and commensurately clockwise through the ball.
All of the practice and teaching devices known to the inventor are set up for one swing type, usually the square-to-square swing and thus prohibits the golfer from practicing any other type of swing. This limitation not only limits a golfer's swing selection, it may force him to practice a swing that is not comfortable to him. That is, the golfer maY be more comfortable with an inside-to-outside swing than a square-to-square swing. In such a case, this golfer will not be able to use the training and teaching device to his best advantage.
Still further, presently available putting devices generally provide an indication of the stroke only at the time of impact between the club and the ball. For example, devices such as the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,342,455, 4,306,722, 4,306,723 and 4,342,456, all provide an indication of swing correctness only at one or two points during the swing. This forces the student to wait for the corrections in his swing. It has been found that the most efficient teaching of motor skills is made when there is an immediate and a continuous feedback as to correctness of the body motions associated with the skill. Accordingly, the presently known devices used to teach and practice putting are not as efficient as they could be.
Accordingly, there is need for a putting teaching and training aid that will permit a golfer to efficiently learn and practice a putting stroke that is connected, keeps the clubface square to the ball at impact, permits the golfer to practice a variety of different swings and does not use tactile senses to teach the skills while providing a continuous and an immediate feedback as to the correctness of the golfer's body motions associated with the putting stroke being practiced or learned.